Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced on Wednesday to three years and five months in federal prison, ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and told to surrender to authorities by noon on July 17 after pleading guilty last August to a conspiracy count linked to Matthew Perry’s death.
Prosecutors said Iwamasa admitted repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine despite having no medical training, giving Perry multiple shots on the day Perry died and, in the three days before the death, injecting him six to eight times per day. Authorities say Perry was found face down in the water at his Pacific Palisades home and was pronounced dead on Oct. 28, 2023, from an accidental overdose of ketamine.
The numbers underline the scope prosecutors described: Iwamasa paid Dr. Salvador Plasencia at least $55,000 to purchase ketamine between September and October 2023, and he was the last of five people charged in the federal investigation into Perry’s death. Other defendants have already been sentenced — Plasencia received 2 1/2 years in December, Eric Fleming was sentenced earlier this month to two years, and Jasveen Sangha received a 15-year sentence in April along with three years of supervised release.
Family members delivered blunt testimony at the hearings about Iwamasa’s role. Madeline Morrison asked the court to weigh who was more culpable — the drug supplier or “the so‑called loyal assistant who bought the drugs by any means necessary, injected him with a lethal dose and left him to die.” She added, "I think it’s safe to guess what my answer would be." Suzanne Morrison pressed the point about trust and responsibility, saying, "His number one responsibility was to ensure that Matthew remained what he wanted to be: drug‑free," and that "instead of protecting Matthew, he aided and abetted illegal drug use, arranged for one source of supply and then another." Madeline Morrison also recalled that "Kenny even spoke at Matthew’s funeral" and said, "The person responsible for my brother’s death stood up and addressed the people who loved him most. That is like a cruel joke I still struggle with. He didn’t just take my brother’s life — he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye."
Prosecutors have described a conspiracy involving Jasveen Sangha and three other men to distribute ketamine to Perry illegally; Iwamasa pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in Perry’s death. The case’s earlier coverage and pre-sentencing filings are available in reporting on Matthew Perry: Live-in Assistant Kenneth Iwamasa Faces Sentencing Wednesday.
That narrative collides with a defense offered by Iwamasa’s attorneys, who argued in court that he could not "simply say no," a line the defense used to explain why he became involved in securing and administering the drug despite having no medical training. The contrast is stark: prosecutors say Iwamasa repeatedly injected a man he was employed to assist, while defense counsel framed his actions as constrained by pressure and circumstance.
The sentence brings the federal prosecutions tied to Perry’s overdose to a formal close: Iwamasa was the last of five suspects charged, and with his term ordered to begin this summer he will serve a federal prison sentence shorter than Sangha’s but longer than the other defendants’ recent terms. He will surrender by noon on July 17 to begin serving three years and five months behind bars and must pay the $10,000 fine to the U.S. government.
